] Date: Thu 19th June, 1997
Source: The Scotsman, Edinburgh, UK (http://www.scotsman.com)
Contact: Addled by drugs 
                            Editorial comment 

  QUESTION: How best to express the
  dangers of drugs to a young,
  fashionconscious audience? Simple: tell
  them only that "the majority" of their
  peers are busy getting high. 

  The number of teenagers then prepared to
  reject what is so clearly the done thing is
  likely to be smaller than you might have
  hoped, of course. In your innocence, you
  might even find this surprising. If so, you
  have no business running a health
  education campaign. 

  At best, the latest poster campaign by
  Scotland Against Drugs is another
  example of society's failure to grasp the
  simple facts about drugs and young
  people. Neither psychology nor peer
  pressure among teenagers is remotely
  understood while the attempt to shock
  amounts, instead, almost to an incitement
  to abuse. 

  Besides, who would be shocked, and why?
  If the majority of 16year olds have
  experimented with drugs they understand
  the extent of the phenomenon far better
  than any advertising agency. If the
  statistic in question, meanwhile, seems
  only to confirm that drug use is normal,
  public money has been spent to damage
  public health. In other words, back to the
  drawing board.